On laptop screens, televisions and social media feeds across the nation, images and words fueled by a fractured political landscape spout anger, frustration and resentment. Clashing ideologies burst forth in public demonstrations, family gatherings and digital echo chambers.
Red-hot rhetoric and finger-pointing memes are open expressions of emotions generated by engaging in politics. But there is another set of emotions far less incendiary but just as damaging to democracy. These feelings can push people to the sidelines and drive them to silence.
Disappointment. Grief. Loss.
The reasons for this phenomenon, along with its effects on mental health, are the subject of “The Sad Citizen: How Politics is Depressing and Why It Matters,” a new book by UC Merced political science Professor Christopher Ojeda.
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